(03) 9020 2905

Welcome to Bruce Brammall Financial

Tag: Transition to Retirement

Avoid a super contributions trap

SUMMARY: Getting around the traps to super contributions pre- and post-65. Getting money into super can be confusing, particularly for those at, or getting toward, the end of your working life. Turning 65 is when getting access to your super is easy. But putting money into super becomes more difficult. But not impossible, under the […]

Permanent chaos – Super’s relative stability

Permanent chaos can be overwhelmingly tiring. A bit of stability and consistency in life is generally welcome. An example of chaos? Greece. Who would be them at the moment? Flat broke and can’t decide whether or not to eject themselves from the Eurozone. Cravings for stability apply to your money, too. Regular paycheques suit many […]

Money for nothin’? You gotta earn it!

There is a period in every parent’s life where all vacations seem to be “holidays in hell”. Who would travel with kids by choice? Tired kids meet airport security. A truly volatile combination. I’ve never sweated more quickly than when I was forced to softly scream at my eight-year-old boy to stop talking about “blowing […]

Now’s time to go hard, Gen-Xers!

I have a rule with Mrs DebtMan. Well, I have a few. So does she. And hers includes no mobile phones at the dinner table. She goes all Cujo-like – frothy at the mouth – if I receive 100 texts over dinner from the school-dad, punting-club “Turkeys”. Which is often. But one of my rules […]

TTR: The secret to not having to work longer

SUMMARY: You don’t have to work longer. Just be smarter with your super. Have a transition-to-retirement pension in your sights. Yet another government manifesto says the nation’s workers are going to have to get used to the idea of working longer. The Intergenerational Report (IGR) last week punted on how much longer we’re going to […]

Six super strategies for couples

SUMMARY: Couples working together financially can make one plus one equal more than two. It’s an unusual statistic, though it shouldn’t be overly surprising: Surveys show the widowed are generally the least worried about their retirement. The reason is understandable. Most of two lifetimes spent saving to fund a joint retirement is now going to […]

Six ways to get ready for retirement

SUMMARY: Six steps to making sure your run up to retirement is as profitable as possible. There is a fuzzy point in your life when the retirement you have been working towards suddenly starts charging at you. It’s fuzzy because it’s going to be a different age for everyone. For most, it will happen somewhere […]

How to choose between super and the mortgage

SUMMARY: Paying off your home, or contributing more to super? Lower rates can make this an even more super idea. Sustained low interest rates has certainly made paying off the mortgage easier in recent years. But it’s also given a boost to a combined super/mortgage strategy. A question often asked by those in their 50s […]

Saying goodbye to work … slowly

SUMMARY: Retiring too early? Don’t, there are plenty of reasons to stay working until you’re really ready to ride off into the sunset. The idea of turning in your badge, at the end of a long career, is becoming increasingly unpopular. For some, it’s actually dreaded. More and more, Australians want to continue working beyond […]

SMSFs become a distorting force

SUMMARY: The power wielded by Australia’s SMSF sector is growing. Will we use that power wisely, or just in individual self-interest? When it comes to throwing its weight around, there is one super fund that can put quakes and quivers into the spines of board directors globally. CalPERS, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, can […]